


Angel

by DeepDarkYetDangerous



Category: The Flash (Comics)
Genre: The Rogues - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-11 07:35:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5618887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeepDarkYetDangerous/pseuds/DeepDarkYetDangerous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Rogues had made a deal, resulting in them getting superpowers, and Axel Walker, the Trickster, is an outsider they let stay with them. But with the arrival of a new Rogue, Axel finds out new things about himself, his family, and all he thought true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Enough

**Author's Note:**

> Please keep in mind that this takes place in an AU, which is based off of the Pre New 52 stuff (I majorly despise the New 52), but DOES have little bits of the New 52 in it, like the Rogues having powers and other little bits. I've had to figure out a whole new plot line for this, so if you get confused about anything, don't feel ashamed to ask me, either here, or on my Tumblr (same user name). I won't judge (I'm kinda confused myself as I'm figuring it all out and figuring out what to use and not use), and I won't bite. I'll hopefully be able to answer any and all questions you have. Thank you and please enjoy! :3

Enough

Axel sighed as he watched the other Rogues from his perch.

He had found a window that had a cubby of space around it and was positioned where the sun didn’t shine directly in.

It was perfect. Just large enough for him to sit up or lay down in without feeling cramped, and the window was easily opened or shut, creating an easy means of escape or entrance if the need or desire occurred.

Axel’d claimed this spot as his, adding a blanket or two and some pillows to add some warmth and comfort to the cement and cinder block ledge.

The blond had always felt a pull towards higher areas. He couldn’t quite explain it, but he felt more… more at peace. Calm and relaxed, while high above everyone’s heads.

This spot fit that category, being about two stories high up, in the Rogues’ current hideout, which was simply, an abandoned warehouse.

So it was there, that Axel spent most of his time while there, avoiding his “co-workers” like they had the plague.

The Rogues had broken up for a while, and Axel was half glad that he’d been kicked out, just before they disbanded.

Yes, he had been distraught that they, who he felt were almost a replacement family, had gotten fed up with him to the point of kicking him out, but on the other hand…

On the other hand? The Rogues went movie-style bad guys, made a deal with some mad scientist, and re-wrote their DNA, combining it with their weapons.

So of course, it backfired.

Cold now froze everything he touched, if he didn’t concentrate on _not_ freezing it.

Sam was trapped in the Mirror World, still able to transport things and people in and out, but not able to get himself out.

Lisa was now an astral projection, aka, a ghost, her physical body in a seemingly permanent coma.

Mark was emotionally linked to his wand and the weather, and now in a constant depression.

And Mick now gave a new meaning to the saying of someone having a “fire in their belly”, with grates on his chest and a literal fire inside him.

They were all meta humans now, and to them, Axel was an outsider, and didn’t fit in with them and their metahuman ways.

They acted like they were better than him, because “he’s not like us, he’s not a metahuman”, while they wallowed away in their self pity and woos of being metas.

Damn hypocrites.

Axel scoffed in disgust as another insult was flung at him, turning and exciting the hideout, closing the window behind himself.

They didn’t know anything.


	2. Catching Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James comes back and joins the Rogues and catches up with the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is possibly going to be extremely slow (posting wise), especially in the beginning, cause I'm trying to figure out how it is working. The ideas are there, I just have to figure out what parts of canon I'm using and what I'm not and how I'm using it.  
> I've posted this chapter and the last right after I finished typing them up and got them edited, so I can't promise how fast I'll get new chapters out.

Catching Up

James strolled into the Rogues’ hideout, blinding smile in place and in full costume, minus the mask.

It was a strange feeling, wearing his costume again, even though this was the first time he’d worn it outside of Gambi’s shop.

James had gotten an invitation to join back up with the Rogues when he had run into the good ol’ Captain, his second night back in Central. It had been a good 25 years since James had left the Rogues and moved to California, but it seemed that not all that much had changed around the Gem Cities.

Well, except a new Flash, the occasional new Rogue, and the original five Rogues that were still on the team, now sporting new looks and powers.

So James had gone to Gambi’s, happy he was still both in town and in business, and a few days later, had a new suit.

He was surprised, and slightly offended at first, that Gambi had done away with the “Trickster stripes”, the big blue and orange vertical stripes James had had, occasionally using other colors instead.

But Gambi had become a close friend over the years of James’ Rogue years, and James trusted Gambi’s judgement.

This new outfit still has stripes, but they were now skinnier and black and yellow, and on only his pants. His shirt was a light blue and more form fitting t-shirt style, and there were suspenders that somehow just seemed _right_ with this outfit.

And oddly, James liked this change, even though it was quite drastic.

It had been twenty five years since he’d been a Rogue though, so there were definitely changes.

James kept up with all the news he could get in California about the going ons in Central and Keystone Cities, but seeing the changes was completely different.

Things moved around, people grew older and some changed. Len and the others weren’t in their late twenties or early thirties anymore, and it seemed like there had been more power struggles within the ranks of the Rogues.

But that was to be expected. This wasn’t the first time there had been power struggles within the Rogues, and definitely wouldn’t be the last time either.

But James wasn’t focusing on that. Instead, he’d been keeping a watchful, and slightly curious eye, on the snot nosed _brat_ who had broken into his storage unit a few years back and stole his gear and a costume.

James was originally, and understandably, quite pissed.

But, as James watches the kid, studied his habits, studied his gear and how it was used, he began to notice things.

He noticed how there was gear he didn’t recognize, either made by the punk or someone else, noticed the subtle changes in the gear that looked like it was _originally_ his, but now modified or copied, noticed the sparks that now came out of the air walkers the kid stole, and how it didn’t seem like the sparks were from the brat messing with the boots, but were actually of a different design, one that he didn’t recognize as his own.

Anger turned to curiosity, and it became interesting for James, watching this kid, studying him without the kid knowing it.

This kid may actually know what he’s doing with the gear and tech.

Or at least, knew someone who knew what they were doing.

So James was confused as he walked into the hideout and only saw the older members of the Rogues, even though he was informed that all of the Rogues would be there, but he didn’t say anything about it.

Maybe the punk quit, or hadn’t been invited back when the Rogues regrouped, or maybe he was just out at the moment.

So James chit chatted with the Rogues and caught up with what had been going on since he left the Twins, Mick, Mark, and Len throwing back a few beers each, Len going slower than the other two, trying to stay sober enough to keep an eye on James, who was still nursing his single beer.

They talked about various yet simply things: encounters with the Flash, the new Flash, who used to be the Kid Flash they’d known for years, the ‘I like the new costume/hair’, or ‘What have you done with ___? I like it!’, what James had been up to in California, how the Rogues had been and what they had been up to since they last saw each other, and other similar topics.

James, in his curiosity, had brought up the punk kid who was using his name, and was… honestly surprised by the response he got.

Mick quickly grew _quite pissed_ at the mention of the youngest Rogue, but before James could worry about the brickhouse of a man with flames now spitting out of the grates on his chest and between his shoulder blades, Mick turned and began cussing up a storm, insulting a wall and startling an almost unresponsive Mark, who was sprawled out on the couch.

James chuckled. Maybe Mick was drunker than he thought, if he was cussing at the wall.

But as Lisa and (a slightly tipsy) Len managed to calm Mick down, James looked closely at the insulted wall, and noticed a window higher up and, to his surprise, he saw the brat he’d been wondering about, as the teen opened the window and left.

The other Rogues didn’t even notice, when James left, through the front door, thank-you-very-much, to go find where the younger blond went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I realized, while trying to remember what the last half of the sentence I stopped on a few weeks ago in chapter three, that I've been seriously hinting about the fact that I gave a few characters metagenes, only one of which I've been hinting towards, but I haven't outright claimed that they were metahumans. So I want to know what you guys think. Who is a metahuman (should be QUITE obvious) and what is their gene?


	3. Up On The Rooftop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Axel and James meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so, sorry about the long wait between last chapter and now, but I've been focusing more on SoP (Story of Pipster), which is my main fic. And I've got a lot of things on my schedule, and a lot of writer's block going on. I know, not the best excuses, but it's the truth. I'm trying to get the story going, but it's fighting me with writer's block and the uncertainty of what is going on and when. So please be patient. :)

Up On The Rooftop

Axel curled up against a brick wall on the roof of the hideout. The brick caught his clothes and the rain that drizzled lazily from the sky was soaking his clothes and dripping from his hair and into his face and down his back.

It was cold, wet, and slightly uncomfortable, but Axel couldn’t find it in him to move.

It was perfect up here, the silence only broken by the calming patter of the almost mist like rain, the muffled sound of the city in the background, and the occasional flapping of a bird’s wings as it flew over head or landed or took off from the rooftops of the surrounding buildings.

Axel was lost in his thoughts and the surreal tranquility that he hadn’t noticed it being shared until it was suddenly broken.

“Hey, what are you doing up here?”  
The voice wasn’t mean or accusing, but warm and gentle, filled with honest curiosity.

Axel looked up quickly in surprise, not used to being caught up here, and saw a tall blond man in suspenders and striped pants.

“W-Who are you?” Axel asked, clearing his throat. After a pause, he asked, “How did you get up here?”

There wasn’t any (easy) way to get up to the roof other than flying, using the dangerously fragile and precariously positioned fire escape, which looked like it was going to fall off the side of the building any day now, or using-

Axel’s eyes went impossibly wide as he realized just who this stranger was, as the man gracefully flopped (being an oxymoron of itself) down besides Axel and offered a hand.

“James Jesse.” He said with a chuckle at Axel’s dumbfounded look as he slowly reached out and shook James’ hand. “The man you stole from.”

Axel’s mouth was open, but nothing was coming out, so he closed his mouth and cleared his throat before trying again.

“Axel.” he managed in a pathetically weak voice.

“I know.” James said in an almost know-it-all tone with a smirk and chuckle.

The younger man knitted his eyebrows and the corners of his mouth twitched downwards in confusion and James laughed.

“I’ve been watching you. Keeping up with the news.” James explained. “‘ _Studying you_ , I guess you could say.” He sighed and looked forward, towards the city scape. “You stole my stuff. You think you wouldn’t catch my eye? Wouldn’t catch my attention to try and figure out who the brat that stole my stuff was and why he did it?”

Well, that made sense, Axel thought with a small shrug of agreeance.

James looked back to Axel with a curious side glance, almost as if sizing him up. “But… You’re not using _my_ tech anymore, are you?”

Axel blinked owlishly before he processed what James was asking.

“Yeah, I… ran out of most of it pretty fast. When I realized I was running out, I… studied it. I tried to figure out how to make more, and when I did, I set your stuff aside to… keep to study, and…” Axel blushed as he realized what he was saying, telling James that he kept his stuff “to study”. Really he just didn’t want to use it. It was James’, and having something of his ‘idol’s’ wasn’t something Axel wanted to give up.

Thankfully, James seemed to ignore the slight blush over Axel’s face as he interrupted Axel’s near rambling.

“But you changed things. Made it your own.” James commented.

“Yeah.” Axel nodded before looking down at his feet, his knees drawn close to his chest, as he could _feel_ James’ glance studying him.

After a moment of peaceful to James, but awkward to Axel, silence, James chuckled and leaned back up against the wall again, looking back towards the city scape that sprawled out ahead.

Axel was shocked as he heard James’ voice again quietly and curiously ask in a gentle voice, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a look at your gear. See what you’ve done with it, you know?”

Axel stared, again with a hung jaw, and after realizing it’d been too long of a moment without him answering, quickly squashing down the anticipation he felt, answered with a question of, “Really?”

James chuckled again, noticing the eagerness Axel had tried and failed to hide in his voice.

“Really.” He answered, looking over to Axel with a big grin.

“Y-Yeah, I can show you some of the stuff I’ve done.” He was growing more and more ecstatic that his ‘idol’ actually wanted to see his work, and Axel could barely keep himself from bouncing in excitement.

Axel had always looked up to James. He was his idol, his hero. That’s why he based his gimmick off of James’. James looking his tech and gear over would be like a dream come true.

Hopefully it wouldn’t become a nightmare, with James criticizing or disapproving his work.

James chuckled and nodded.

“Maybe tomorrow?” James suggested, smiling at how Axel was lit up like a Christmas tree and the eager nodding he got as a response from the kid.

Maybe the kid wasn’t all that much of a brat…

But onto what he had come up here for…

“So…” James began. “Do the others usually treat you like that?”

Axel looked at James in confusion, the excitement of the previous conversation erasing the reason he was on the roof from his mind, before putting two and two together to get fish, his eyes going wide and he looked away.

“Not always.” he mumbled, causing James’ face to fall.

“‘Not always’?” James questioned, Axel giving no response. “How often?” His voice grew softer as he tried to gently pry this information out of the teen, who only shrugged, obviously not wanting to talk about this subject.

James sighed.

“Then why stay, if they only treat you like shit?” he asked, honestly curious. Either the kid was stupid, which he highly doubted, or blind to the abuse, or there was possibly something James didn’t know about or wasn’t seeing. Something that kept him tethered to the Rogues.

He sighed when he got no response.

Maybe a different approach would help?

“How old are you?” James asked in a softer, more gentle voice, trying to at least _seem_ like he was trying to change the topic. “I mean, you look young. Young enough I’m seriously surprised the Captain let you into the playhouse.”

Axel was quiet still as he looked over to James and then asked, “I’m not _that_ young. How old do you think I am?”

James stopped and looked Axel over carefully.

“Seventeen?”

Axel laughed.

So… Not seventeen…

“Nineteen.” Axel answered. “Turning twenty this April.”

Ok, so James was a bit off, but Axel _did_ look young for his age, slightly chubby cheeks and short height and what James assumed to be a small frame, hidden in the baggy, two sizes too big costume, and at least they had shared a good laugh together.

“Nineteen, huh?” James asked with a side glance and sideways smirk. “Shouldn’t you be in college, or at _least_ partying it up with friends? It _is_ a Friday night after all.”

Now it seemed like it was Axel’s turn to roll his eyes and sigh.

“What friends?” Axel asked, leaning slightly towards James with a sarcastic grin, before straightening back up and looking to the city.

“Don’t have many ‘friends’, being a wanted criminal, high school dropout and run away and all.” Came his real answer.

James scoffed and acted dramatically offended, hand slapped over his heart in a false swoon, and Axel gave him a raised eyebrow.

“You’re talking to someone who grew up in a traveling circus, never staying in the same city or state from more than a few _weeks_ , then became a Rogue. Your excuses are invalid in this situation, I believe.” James teased in an overdramatic voice before chuckling. “There’s gotta be _someone_ your age who you can be chummy chums with. Someone you can goof off with or blow off steam with.”

Axel shrugged, and there was a moment of quiet before, “Never really fit in with my age group.”

The elder blond waited to see if there was more that the younger blond would add, but after yet another moment of silence, is became apparent that he wasn’t going to say anything else.

“It’s nice up here.” James started with a peaceful sigh. “You can see most of the city from here.”

There was a small noise of agreement from Axel before James continued, asking, “You come up here often?”

Axel sighed before speaking up.

“Usually when I’ve just had enough of the others or need to clear my head.” Axel explained nonchalantly.

“What exactly do the others say to you? What do they get on you about?” James asked with a cocked head and curious voice. James knew it was a daring topic , but James was curious.

There was a slight breeze that blew past them, just hard enough to gently move their clothes and hair, and the rain had stopped some time ago, but both were ignored by the two blondes on the rooftop.

Axel paused, considering lying to the man, but eventually, with yet another sigh as he slumped forward, shoulders he hadn’t noticed were tight suddenly relaxing, he turned to James with near pleading eyes and quietly asked, “Promise this is between me and you? That the others won’t find out?”

James paused a moment as he realized the kid already seemed to trust him enough for this kid to tell him something he wanted to keep secret.

So James did the only thing he felt he _could_ do.

  
  


He nodded his head and, to try and lighten the mood a bit and possibly make it easier for the kid, stuck out his pinky finger with a sly smirk and a “Pinky promise it kid. Just between you and me.”

James’ smile grew into a triumphant smirk as the teen, who was taken aback at first, smiled and shook pinkies.

“I-” Axel started, not quite sure how to explain his situation. “I don’t fit in with the Rogues. Never really have, and probably never really will.”

Well that was obvious. Unless yelling at someone for no reason had suddenly meant something else…

“I know that, and _they_ know that.” Axel continued. “That’s why they yell at me and treat me like I’m worthless. I know that I should leave but…” He paused. “I _can’t_.”

“They’re literally all I have.” Axel’s voice was barely above a whisper as he spoke. “They were my ‘heroes’. I’d watch them on TV and wish I could be like them. They were so _cool_ and _powerful_ and didn’t listen to anyone but themselves… _That’s_ what I wanted to be when I grew up… No parents, no teachers, no one bossing me around or telling me I’m worthless.”

Axel was staring intently at his hands, which were together in his lap.

“I… I _want_ to leave… I’ve… I can’t… I can’t take them yelling at me and blaming me for all their woos and issues. ‘You don’t belong here’ ‘You can’t understand’. All the things they say and do to me…”

The teen looked like he was barely held together at this point, his knuckles white and shaky as he held his hands together.

“They treat me like shit, like I don’t know anything. Like I haven’t already lived through enough Hell.”

Axel stopped, either not wanting or not willing to go any further, and suddenly, James realized that it wasn’t just _trust_ that made Axel tell James his side of the coin, but a lack of people to talk to.

The only people in Axel’s life were the Rogues, and they were the ones he couldn’t relate to and needed to vent about. Who knows how long this had been boiling up, just at the brim of boiling over.

This was Axel finally reaching out for help.

“Forget it. It’s stupid. _I’m_ stupid, thinking that talking about this shit with a complete stranger will magically make it all better.” Axel said, angry at himself for being ‘weak’ and being too trusting and open about things he’d rather not share, to someone that for all he knew, could turn right around and use it against him.

Axel moved to get up, however, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, not forceful, but gentle and caring, even though Axel could tell that the hand was large and calloused and could _easily_ have pulled Axel back down with just a small flick of the wrist.

Axel looked back over to James, who wasn’t looking back, and slowly sat back down, eyes never leaving the man’s face.

“You think you’re ‘weak’ or something for complaining and opening up, don’t you?” James asked, voice quiet but with an air of seriousness that made everything else seem muted, as he looked over at Axel, studying his face again.

Axel froze.

It was almost as if James had read his mind.

“Saying that something is bothering you, or admitting you’re hurting isn’t weak. Keeping all that in, not reaching out, not letting people know or help. _That’s_ weak.” James explained coolly, his hand trailing down to rest on Axel’s shoulder blade in a friendly and comforting manner.

“Sometimes it’s easier to hide it all away. Be emotionless to the world. Be a robot. The words just bounce off your shield.” he continued. “But it takes a stronger man to feel and let others know he feels.”

And with that, James stood up and walked back to the edge of the roof, pausing to look over his shoulder at Axel.

“Oh, and Axel?” he asked, grabbing the teen’s attention one last time. “We’re not strangers.”

And he was gone, jumped down and using his air walkers to slow his fall. He smoothed out his outfit after he landed and walked back into the Rogues’ HQ, the others never noticing his leave.


End file.
